


You Let Me Complicate You

by Calamity_Hero_Awakens



Series: Closer [8]
Category: Saw (Movies)
Genre: Children, Domestic Boyfriends, Domestic Fluff, Family Bonding, Fluff, Gen, Healing, M/M, Nail Polish, Past Violence, Tags Are Hard, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:46:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24610993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calamity_Hero_Awakens/pseuds/Calamity_Hero_Awakens
Summary: As the two approached the check out, Diana told Adam, “I’m going to paint your nails black and mine will be green.”“I thought you wanted blue,” Adam replied with a short laugh.“I got a blue one too,” Diana happily replied before her eyes really lit up. “Do you think daddy will let me paint his nails too?”Adam laughed at the thought. “You already convinced one dad; I’ll help you convince the other.”
Relationships: Adam Faulkner-Stanheight/Lawrence Gordon
Series: Closer [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694818
Comments: 9
Kudos: 39





	You Let Me Complicate You

**Author's Note:**

> If you didn’t read part 7 (“You Can Have My Isolation”) of the series, all you need to know is Adam was shot in the left forearm by some stupid street punk.

“What’cha doin’, kiddo?” Adam asked, taking note of Diana’s position on the floor in front of the coffee table. Several miniature bottles were placed on the small, wooden table in front of her and she was carefully examining each of them, trying to decide on something.

“I want to paint my nails,” she said, her eyes still trained on the little bottles, “but I don’t know what colour.”

Adam took a seat on the couch, leaning forward with his right elbow on his knee, his left resting in the sling, as he examined the brightly coloured bottles of nail polish. All of the colours were bright, nearly blinding. Several of the bottles were pink, but there was also shades of purple, red, and even a yellow and an orange.

“The orange looks good,” Adam said and Diana shrugged.

“I kinda want to do them blue, but I don’t have blue,” she dismally replied, picking up the orange bottle and shaking it half-heartedly.

“We could go get some blue if you want,” Adam replied and Diana immediately perked up, turning around from her spot on the floor to give Adam a big smile.

“Really?”

“Sure,” Adam replied. “Your dad won’t be back for a little bit so we’d have to walk, but the store’s just down the street if you really wanna go.”

The young girl jumped up from the floor, calling over her shoulder, “I’ll put on my shoes!” as she excitedly ran to her room. While she was gone, Adam did a quick check of his wallet to make sure he had enough cash. He probably should have done that before he made the suggestion, but he had more than enough money so it wouldn’t be an issue.

Seconds later, Diana reappeared, nearly bouncing with excitement as she followed Adam to the door. Once the door had been locked and the two had made their way out of the building, Diana’s small hand grasped Adam’s as they began walking down the street. A simple dollar store sat on the corner less than half a mile from their apartment and for that, Adam was grateful. He had made multiple trips to the store on multiple occasions and besides that, it was nice to have a small all-purpose store so close, considering he no longer had a vehicle.

Inside the store, Diana was literally bouncing beside Adam as the two searched the signs hanging over the aisles, trying to determine which aisle held the items they desired. The photographer figured the nail polish would probably be on the aisle labeled “Health and Beauty”, so the duo made their way to aisle five. Sure enough, the shelves were lined with shampoo, toothpaste, soap, Q-Tips, and all kinds of other products, including a large variety of nail polish and makeup.

“Wow,” Diana said in a reverent, hushed voice. “There’s so many colours.”

“Take your pick, kiddo,” Adam said, letting go of her hand so she could pick up the bottles and sift through the available colours.

As she searched the shelves, reading over the labels that had the colours listed on the edge of the shelves, a woman came around the end of the aisle, a plastic shopping basket in one hand. Adam glanced over at her to find the woman was wearing a scowl, watching the little girl excitedly sift through the colours while a man stood there beside her. Adam had to admit, if he had been anyone else and he had seen someone like himself hovering over a little girl, he probably would have been alarmed as well. With his hair completely out of place, his jeans covered in various stains that refused to come out no matter how many times he washed them, and his flannel over shirt wrinkled beyond repair, he didn’t exactly look like the ideal role model, let alone father. It also didn’t help that Diana looked nothing like him, so he couldn’t even try to claim paternity of her to a stranger.

 _But fuck that_ , Adam thought. _It doesn’t fucking matter what other people think._

He forced his attention back to the shelves, absentmindedly picking up one of the small bottles of polish while glancing at the critical looking woman from the corner of his eye. After several long seconds of pretending to be invested in nail polish, Adam finally couldn’t take it. He lifted his head to look at the woman and quickly shot her the middle finger. The woman’s expression instantly went from one of judgement to wide eyed offense.

“Dad,” Diana suddenly said, pulling on the sleeve of Adam’s right arm; he was quick to lower his hand which was still raised in the offensive gesture. Turning to the brunette girl, he realized he was still holding the small vial when Diana plucked it from his grasp.

A bright smile was plastered on her face as she held it up. “Can I paint your nails?”

Had it been any other colour, Adam would have probably thought up some excuse; as luck would have it though, he had grabbed a bottle of black nail polish.

“Sure,” he replied before noticing several bottles were lined up on the shelf in no particular order. “We’re getting those too?”

Diana nodded shyly, unsure if her selection would be accepted, and Adam picked up as many of the bottles as he could with his right hand, awkwardly holding the five or so little glass bottles of polish while Diana grabbed the few he hadn’t been able to. “Alright, let’s go check out then.”

Still clutching the bottle of black, Diana led the way down the aisle and back to the register. As they passed the woman who continued to linger in front of the shelves of soap, Adam coughed a handful of times, mumbling “Bitch” not too quietly in between coughs. Diana remained completely oblivious but by the way the woman began to turn as they passed, Adam knew she had heard. Good.

At the register, the woman behind the counter pleasantly asked, “Did you find everything alright today?”

“Yeah,” Adam lamely replied as he pulled his worn wallet from the back pocket of his jeans.

As he passed the folded dollar bills to the cashier, Diana told him, “I’m going to paint yours black and mine will be green.”

“I thought you wanted blue,” Adam replied with a short laugh.

“I got a blue one too,” Diana happily replied before her eyes really lit up. “Do you think daddy will let me paint his nails too?”

Adam laughed at the thought. “You already convinced one dad; I’ll help you convince the other, alright?”

“Okay!” Diana replied with a smile before the cashier handed Adam his change and stuck the receipt in the cheap plastic bag with the small vials of paint. Adam dumped his change into the bag before grabbing a hold of it.

“Have a nice day!” she cheerfully told the two customers before Adam took the bag and they left the store.

As soon as the two stepped foot outside, Diana’s hand was taking the bag from him, her other hand grasping his tightly. Adam didn’t blame her; after being restrained by a strange man and having a gun pointed at her, Diana was wary of every stranger, especially men. In a sick way, Adam knew he had gotten his revenge on Zep, but he didn’t think it would ever be enough. Of course, it was technically Jigsaw’s fault, but Zep had played an important role in his sick “game”. He was the reason Lawrence’s sweet, innocent daughter now hid behind her parents whenever an adult approached her, the reason she often woke up crying in the middle of the night.

Once they had entered their apartment and the door was closed and locked behind them, Diana happily returned to her seat in front of the coffee table, carefully dumping the contents of the bag on the wooden top. After gathering up the loose change, she handed it to Adam along with the receipt before looking back at her collection of little, colourful bottles.

“I’ll paint yours black, and you can paint mine green, okay?” Diana said to Adam who agreed as he went to put the change in the jar in the bedroom where most of his loose change went. There was no point in keeping it in his wallet when it would just fall out.

When Adam returned to the living room, he realized that Lawrence would be home soon. A grin appeared on his face involuntarily as he returned to his seat on the couch. As soon as his butt hit the couch cushion, Diana was shoving the bottle of thick, green liquid into his hand.

“Me first,” she said excitedly, taking a seat on the coffee table and holding out her hand. Adam scooted to the edge of his seat and set her hand on his knee; after getting the bottle open - something Diana had to assist with - the photographer began to carefully paint the girl’s nails a shimmery forest green. Diana sat in silence, her eyes glancing between her hand and Adam’s injured arm. She hadn’t been told what had happened - her parents had feared it would scare her too much - and the curiosity was killing her.

“Dad?” she finally asked.

“Yeah?” Adam replied, eyes focused on his task as he dipped the brush back into the colourful paint and began finishing the last nail on her left hand.

“What happened to your arm?” Diana asked. Adam paused as he reached for her next hand and set it on his knee. Her parents might be willing to lie to her, but Adam wasn’t about to. Hell, the girl would be in middle school soon; she was a big girl and could handle being told what had happened to Adam.

“I was shot,” Adam told the young girl.

“Why?” she questioned.

“I… Told a man to do something not very nice because he tried to rob me. He wasn’t very happy with what I said.”

Diana thought it over before asking, “What part of your arm did he shoot?”

Adam was a little surprised by the question but he reached out and tapped her arm where the wound was located on himself, just below the bend in his arm, but just to the left of the bone.

“That sounds like it hurt,” Diana said, rubbing her arm as she thought about it.

“It did,” Adam replied as he went back to painting her nails. “But it’s not the first time I’ve been shot.”

“What happened the first time?” Diana asked, her eyes wide with curiosity at the news.

Oh. Of course they wouldn’t have told Diana that piece of news. Some things were best left untold, he supposed.

“A man was very confused and scared and he thought he was doing the right thing,” Adam replied, his eyes trained on her hand as he painted the nail of her ring finger. “But I don’t blame him for it.”

Diana watched as her nails were painted in silence until all ten of them were covered in the green paint. A few minutes passed as she let them dry before she grabbed the black bottle of polish.

“Your turn!”

The two sat in silence as the short fingernails of Adam’s right hand were covered in the paint. When Diana moved on to his left hand, Adam warned her to be careful. She took that to heart. Her small fingers carefully held Adam’s hand as she painted each individual nail, being more cautious than necessary, but Adam would never complain about that.

When she was finally done, Adam inspected his hands. He had to admit, he wasn’t hating this. In fact, his hands looked pretty good. Maybe he’d let her do it again.

“Do you like them?” Diana anxiously asked.

“Definitely,” Adam replied with a smile. “They look great.”

Diana seemed more than pleased with that answer as she gathered up the small bottles and took them to her room. Adam looked at his hands again, turning them to let the light catch his nails, making the black paint look shiny. Yep, he was definitely convincing Lawrence to do his too.

Speaking of which, he could hear the keys jingling as they slid into the lock and the tumblers turned, the door unlocking and the handle turning before doctor Gordon was revealed in the doorway.

“Daddy!” Diana exclaimed excitedly as she returned to the living room, running to hug Lawrence. The door closed behind him at nearly the same moment that Diana wrapped her arms around him, wrapping him in a tight grip.

“Hey, girlie,” Lawrence said, running his hand over her hair. “How was your day?”

Still hugging her father, Diana looked up at Lawrence. “It was fun! Dad painted my nails, see?” She held up one of her hands for inspection.

“It looks beautiful,” Lawrence confirmed with a smile that Diana returned.

“I painted his too.”

Lawrence quirked a brow and looked up at Adam. “Really?”

“What can I say? I’m classy,” Adam replied, earning a giggle from Diana. “Now hurry up and come sit down. It’s your turn, mister.”

“Adam, I can’t have my nails painted for work.”

Diana’s face fell but Adam was quick to say something.

“It’s Saturday.”

“And?”

“You don’t work again until Tuesday. You can take it off on Monday night if you have to. So get over here.”

Lawrence couldn’t argue with that so he didn’t even try. Setting his briefcase on the table beside the door, Lawrence shook his head, a smile on his face as Diana pulled him toward the couch.

“Do I get a say in the matter?” Lawrence asked though there was no wiping the grin off his face.

“You get to choose a colour. All other rights have been temporarily revoked,” Adam replied.

Diana disappeared to her room for a moment before reappearing with the blue bottle of paint as Lawrence took a seat on the couch, setting his cane to the side.

“My bad,” Adam corrected. “No, you don’t get any rights.”

Lawrence rolled his eyes but when Diana asked for his hand, he handed it over, watching as the girl meticulously painted his nails a light blue. Lawrence’s left hand reached over to grab Adam’s right, holding it up to inspect his fingers.

“I got to pick my colour,” Adam boasted, sticking out his tongue.

Lawrence rolled his eyes at his partner’s childish behaviour before flicking his hand.

“Jealous,” Adam grumbled, rubbing the back of his hand against his jeans to counter the feeling.

“Other hand, daddy,” Diana said and Lawrence gave her his other hand.

“I’m going to guess you two had fun today,” Lawrence commented, looking over at Adam as he asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Like I was shot in the street,” Adam replied. Lawrence glanced over at Diana but she seemed content to paint his nails.

“We already talked about it,” Adam explained, adding in a lower voice, “She’s a big girl, Lawrence. Trust me.”

Lawrence nodded, his eyes drifting down to the sling that contained Adam’s left arm. “You can have another pain pill if you need one.”

“Whoo!” Adam cheered, earning a laugh from Diana and Lawrence as he stood up and disappeared into their shared bedroom. Lawrence could hear him struggle with the pill bottle for a moment before he heard the sound of a bottle full of pills hit the floor and Adam’s frustrated voice.

“Fuck!”

“Language!”

“Frick!”

Sitting on the coffee table, Diana started giggling at the inappropriate comment and Lawrence shook his head. They were still working on Adam’s foul mouth.

Adam appeared in the living room again, reclaiming his previous seat on the couch.

“Have a hard time?” Lawrence asked.

Adam narrowed his eyes and huffed. “I finally got the bottle open and then dropped it.”

“So I heard.”

Diana was full on laughing at the two as she replaced the brush into the little bottle. Still giggling, she said, “All done.”

“They look beautiful,” Lawrence honestly replied before looking up at his daughter’s face. “I love them, Diana.”

“Yay!” Diana cheered before she stood from the coffee table and went back to her room to put the nail polish away.

Adam’s right hand clapped Lawrence’s knee. “You’re a good dad.”

“So are you,” Lawrence replied, giving his partner a bright smile.

Adam ducked his face away in embarrassment as he mumbled, “Gay.”

Lawrence laughed. “That’s the point.”

Adam sighed with a grin as he scooted closer, resting his head against Lawrence’s shoulder. “Of course it is.”


End file.
